Richmond celebrate third AFL win
Richmond flexed their midfield muscle against Fremantle as Trent Cotchin took his turn in the spotlight.
Trailing by two points at half-time, the Tigers roared to their third successive win of the AFL season with a 14-goal effort in the second half to triumph 23.10 (148) to 14.15 (99).
Second-year midfield powerhouse Dustin Martin had a rare off day for this season. But the classy Cotchin stepped up in his place, gathering 25 disposals and kicking four goals at the MCG on Saturday.
Lively small forward Robin Nahas, with 30 touches and four goals, was also a match-winner for the fleet-footed Tigers who lifted themselves to top-eight contention after seven rounds.
Tagger Matt de Boer held Martin to 11 disposals, but the Dockers had no answers to Richmond's energy levels as the Tigers dominated the uncontested possessions 252 to 144.
Key forward Jack Riewoldt also kicked four goals for the Tigers who feasted on turnovers from Fremantle's forward-line. Dockers coach Mark Harvey lamented his side's early inaccuracy, kicking 2.8 in the opening term.
The 185cm Cotchin gave away 7cm to Dockers champion Matthew Pavlich in an on-ball contest that provided a fascinating duel, with Pavlich gathering a game-high 33 possessions and 10 clearances, while Cotchin had seven clearances.
"If you had said Trent Cotchin will kick four goals and be a barometer for this side I will take that every day of the week," Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said.
"Matthew Pavlich is an outstanding player, as Trent Cotchin is going to be, so for a head-to-head battle it was one we thoroughly enjoyed."
Second-year coach Hardwick said it was the best win in his time at Tigerland, but warned that finals talk was out of the question for the moment.
"It is round seven, round 24 we may start to embrace it," Hardwick said.
"We are not going to get ahead of ourselves. We've got a formidable opponent next week in the Western Bulldogs and we are very much looking forward to the challenge," Hardwick said.
"They are a side that embarrassed us last year in round two (by 72 points).
"Once we start to beat those sides that have had the wood over us for a number of years we will start to think about how far we can go.
"The great thing from our point of view is we beat a top-four side which we haven't been able to do since my time here so it's a great win for us.
"But we understand the difference between a Fremantle, no disrespect to them, but to a Collingwood, Geelong, those teams are another step again.
"Until we start knocking off those teams or getting a hell of a lot closer ... once we start doing that we may get some credibility."
Hardwick said the spread of goalkickers was a huge positive for the Tigers who are no longer heavily reliant upon 2010 Coleman Medallist Riewoldt.
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